


we'll take the stars (show them how to glow)

by biochemprincess



Category: 12 Monkeys (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, F/M, Fake Marriage, Post 2x03
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-06
Updated: 2016-05-06
Packaged: 2018-06-06 17:36:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6763660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/biochemprincess/pseuds/biochemprincess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Mr. Cole, I'm so sorry, I didn't realize she was your ---"<br/>"Wife. Mrs. Cassandra Cole."</p><p>(Five times Cassie and Cole pretended they are married and one time they didn't)</p>
            </blockquote>





	we'll take the stars (show them how to glow)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sleeplessmiles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleeplessmiles/gifts), [Eorlingas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eorlingas/gifts), [maybesandsomedays](https://archiveofourown.org/users/maybesandsomedays/gifts).



> for the enablers - sarah, sam and cindy. this got a little out of control.
> 
> title comes from the lyrics of 'oh my love' by the score

 

* * *

 

  

_i. - 1944_

 

"Mr. Cole, I'm so sorry, I didn't realize she was your ---"

"Wife."

Her eyebrows almost disappeared into her hairline as he said the sentence. But Cole's conviction was quite impressive, even if all words failed her right then and there. She hoped the shock wasn't too visible in her face.

"Mrs. Cassandra Cole. Thanks." His voice was too soft, too warm.

She didn't say anything to correct the statement, didn't want to cause any more problems and screw their cover. But something inside her didn't feel right, didn't feel comfortable.

Being his wife - even if it was just a facade - was too intimate, too close to the surface.

And Cassie didn't want to drown.

Not with everything that still hung between them, unspoken, unaddressed. Sharp claws digging into their bodies until they laid bruised and broken. Weapons may kill you, but words struck the most powerful of blows, right where it hurt the most.

But she couldn't let her feelings get in the way, not with the looming threat of disaster hanging over their heads.

They had a mission to finish. 

And that's what they would do.

Nothing else.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_ii. - 2018_

 

The hotel lobby was bustling with people, like a bee hive. Somebody ran their suitcase into her tibia and another person almost stabbed Cole with an umbrella. This conference was going to be one hell of a ride, Cassie thought.

"Tell me, what exactly are we doing here again?" He asked, his mood disgruntled, shaking some rain from his hair. The weather in D.C was less than amicable today.

"Trying to be one step ahead of the plague. If we find out what they know already, we can trace steps back."

"Only if none of those doctors slay me with brochures." Cole pointed towards the tables neatly lined up the walls - the pharma sponsors and their vampire - like sales representatives.

Cassie smiled at him. "I'm sure you can handle some people in suits, if they attacked you."

"They look scary." Cole answered. His was tone was carefree and not serious at all. She looked into his face and tried to mimic his expression and feelings.

He did it a lot lately - tried to lighten the mood, tried to make her smile. Cole never strayed from their goal now, not like she'd shouted into his face more than once, but he always made sure she was alright. He didn't let her fall down the dark rabbit hole filled with darkness and the blood on her hands.

_little alice fell down the hole, bumped her head and bruised her soul_

With his hand at the small of her back, they navigated through the crowd together. It was like --- it was like walking through a maze blindfolded, with only a string of wool in her hands. She didn't know the way and she couldn't see it either, but Cole was the string leading the way. The red string through time and space.

"I'll sign us up." Cassie pointed at the reception desk at the other side of the lobby. "Try not to cause any havoc in the meantime."

"Only if the bad sales people attack me."

She made her way to the registration counter and got them fancy plastic ID's on sponsored badge holder necklaces. They had mutually decided to use their real names instead of fake ones. Their lives were complicated enough already without having to get names straight.

As she glanced over her shoulder to see how Cole was doing, she saw him standing next to a woman she knew. Mel - Marie - Maya. Maya Donovan, they'd worked in the same hospital. 

Cassie finished the registration in record time - with a smug grin on her face - and came to his rescue, putting the filled - out _Hello, My Name Is_ sticker onto his chest. "Here you go, honey." She then turned towards Maya, pretending to only now recognize her.

"Maya? How long has it been? It seems like forever."

Maya identified her quickly enough and took the chance to wrap her into a hug. It took everything inside Cassie for her not to flinch at the sudden full body contact. The people in the future were less keen on hugging.

Cole had his hand at her waist once they let go of each other, once again grounding her. 

Cassie linked an arm through Cole's elbow. "You've met my husband already. This is James Railly."

Cole coughed, but remained silent otherwise.

"A modern man, it seems."

"You have no idea." Cassie answered, the inside joke not lost on Cole.

They chatted for a little longer, until somebody else was in need of Maya's attention.

Cole looked down his shirt, directly at the sticker, and back at her. "James Railly?"

"Yes."

"Why do I suddenly have your last name?" Cole whispered against her ear shell and she shivered. He threw her so out of balance every time he came too close. 

"Because I'm the famous scientist here and fair's fair, _darling._ " The endearment was meant to mock him, rile him up just a little, but a grin split across his face and Cassie had to look away to not be blinded.

"Well, who would I be to turn down my wife's wishes, right?"

"Right. Let's get to work."

"As you wish."

She punched him in the upper arm for this.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_iii. - 1967_

 

The security guard came running towards them with quick strides. "Hey! Stop!"

They slowed down, looking for a way out of the situation.

"Pretend you're sick." Cole hissed. 

"I can't throw up on command." She gave back, but played along anyway. They stopped running through the high grass and Cassie put her hands on the brick stone wall next to her, looking as miserable as she could muster. It wasn't exactly difficult - it had been a long day and little food, so the stars dancing in her field of vision were all too real.

Cole stood next to her in a protective stance, shielding her from the guard.

"This is forbidden territory, you are not allowed to be here." The man bellowed at them.

 _Too late,_ they had already stolen what they needed for Jones. 

Cole took the lead in the conversation. "Look, I'm sorry man. But my wife, she's pregnant and needed some fresh air." 

The guard didn't seem convinced. He pointed towards the building they were just coming from. "You work in the factory?"

"Yeah, night shift. You wouldn't wanna swap with me, let me tell you that. And Cass, she brought me the dinner I'd forgotten at home. The best of wives, you know. But air inside isn't good for her in her condition, you know."

The man took a long look at her and Cassie made herself even smaller and more miserable. Her acting talent had improved at lot in the past weeks and months and Cole had always been good, though his performance right now was worthy of an Oscar.

"It's our first." Cassie said weakly. The light of his flashlight glinted off her fake wedding band. They came more prepared nowadays.

"Just follow me." The security guard led them back along a trample path from the back of the factory to a small guard house on the front. He opened a room at the back. "Wait here."

They sat down on the bed in the corner without another word as the guard locked the room and left them in the darkness of the holding cell, only alight with the full moon shining through a small window.

"Let's hope we splinter before he comes back. I don't think I have any lies left inside me tonight." Cole said.

Cassie nodded in silent agreement and let out a long breath. It was tiring, pretending to be so many people, so many different versions of herself. The running and the fighting she could do, but the lying took the hardest toll.

Cole pointed at the rings on their hands. "Did ever want to get married? Before ---" He asked, then just stopped.

"Before all of this?" Her hands gestured in circles at the air around them.

Cole nodded.

"I don't know." Cassie answered honestly. "As a child I played house with my little sister, like many little girls, and we'd marry our Barbies and Kens to each other. We even had the Peaches 'n Cream Barbie. The box said 'She's as pretty as a peach blossom' and my dad would always repeat it to us." Tears stung in her eyes at the memory.

He took her hand and simply waited for her to continue talking.

"But then we got sick and --- Meningitis is quite contagious when you have prolonged contact with an infected person and somehow we both caught it. And while I survived, she didn't. My parents weren't the same afterwards. Nothing was the same afterwards. And when my mum died in 1990 ---" She took a deep breath. "I watched a part of my father die with her when we buried her. Marriage didn't seem like something to aspire if it hurt like this."

"He really loved her."

"Yes, he did. My father died in 2007. He watched me graduate medical school and then he just faded away."

"What were their names?"

Cassie looked up. Cole didn't offer her my condolences, they didn't do any good anyway. You couldn't change the past with them and she was grateful to not have to hear it. He knew what it was like to be the last survivor of a family line, too. "My family's?"

"Jones never told me their names."

"My parent's names were Benjamin and Elizabeth. My sister was named Helena."

"Cassandra and Helena?"

"My mother was a professor of Ancient Greek History. She loved the myths and named us accordingly." Bittersweet memories appeared in front of her eyes. "It's ironic, isn't it? Being named after the prophet who always spoke the truth but everybody refused to believe."

"Did it feel like this in the two years after 2013, after ---"

"Yes."

"I'm sorry."

The honesty in his voice almost killed her, but she didn't want to dwell on the past. "Did _you_ ever want to get married?"

Cole laughed wearily. "No. The future is not a place for marriage. And certainly not for me."

"Not yet."

"Not yet." He agreed.

Cassie took off her ring and held out her open palm to him. "Here. For the next time."

Cole merely gazed at her with that special look in his eyes, only ever reserved for her.  "Keep it."

"Why?"

"Suits you." He said and smiled widely, for the first time tonight.

Her heart skipped a beat as she fiddled with the ring on her finger. "Thank you."

And before they could say anything else, they splintered back.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_iv. - 2000_

 

_i'm his wife_

The words had left her mouth all on their own.

_I'm his wife._

It didn't matter that they were in Europe instead of America, rules were rules everywhere, and they just wouldn't tell her otherwise ---

"I'm his wife." Cassie again told the doctor standing in front of her. The lie slipped from her lips so easily, like an undeniable truth. Her heart quieted its frenzied beating at the familiar fact.

The woman in the white hospital scrubs eyed her hands suspiciously, both of them lacking a wedding band on her ring fingers.

Cassie quickly fumbled with the necklace around her neck, pulling it from under her shirt and showing the doctor the ring threaded on it. The ring from their last mission as a married couple.

_Keep it. Suits you._

She had really kept it, closer than she would have thought, right above her heart. Cole must know, though he'd never said anything about it. They weren't good at it, talking about their feelings for each other.

"I'm a doctor too." She added, though it wasn't necessary, though she hadn't said those words on a very long time. "Always gets in the way on my hands."

The doctor in charge seemed to believe her or she took pity on her - Cassie didn't know and she didn't care. All she wanted was information about Cole's medical status and to get into the intensive care unit.  

"His injury is not life threatening. The surgery was successful and he'll be awake soon."

The words took a load of her mind and she could breath again. She could see his blood spilling onto her hands, red and unstoppable. The feeling of helplessness suffocated her.

"I'll bring you to him."

The sterility of the ICU looked different from the point of view one was having. Cassie only remembered bits and pieces from her time as a patient when she was a little kid and she'd never given it much thought when she'd worked in a hospital as a doctor, but being a relative seemed to be the worst vantage point.

Cassie pulled a chair next to his bed and waited.

The waiting game wasn't something she was good at.

Despite her extensive knowledge of gun shot wounds and medical information about the human body, she eyed his every movement carefully. The constant beeping of the heart monitor became the only melody in her head, as she watched his chest rise and fall in a steady rhythm. 

True to the doctor's prediction the anaesthesia wore off soon enough and he started to wake up on his own.

"What ---?" A coughing fit interrupted his attempt to speak. Cassie immediately got up from the chair, found a cup with water and held it to his mouth. Cole swallowed small gulps of liquid before he leaned back on the cushions and continued speaking. "What happened?"

"One of the Messengers attacked you. Do you remember anything?"

He nodded hesitantly. "It was quick."

"I didn't have the instruments, the equipment ---" She stopped, keeping the memories in check so they wouldn't overwhelm her. "The wound was too deep and the bullet had hit an important blood vessel. You were bleeding too much and I couldn't help you."

"I'm alive. That's enough help in my books."

_No, it's not._

But Cassie kept quiet and relished in the sound of his voice and the feel of his skin under her hands.

"By the way if anybody asks, I'm your wife."

"Oh, I like that."

"That's the morphine talking."

Cole started shaking his head, without interrupting the various lines he was hooked up to. "No, that's me speaking, only me. James Cole, time - traveller extraordinaire. Okay, maybe the morphine loosened my tongue a bit. But it's still true."

Once more Cassie didn't know how to reply. Words had always come easy for her, but Cole took them all away. He had changed her life upside down and he challenged her view every single and he unbalanced her equilibrium, but --- Whenever Cole entered a room her first instinct was to look at him, see if he was alright. 

Some days Cole was the first thought after waking up and the last before she went to sleep.

"I'm a good catch." He added, reading her silence wrong.

Cassie laughed lightheartedly. "Oh, I know."

"What would you say if I asked you to marry me?" 

Her breath caught in her throat. "I'd tell you to go to sleep."

Cole closed his eyes. "We're gonna talk about it later. Because I have some great arguments prepared." 

_Oh, she believed it._

"We'll have time later."

But Cole was already asleep.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_v. - 2016_

 

Cassie sipped at her champagne flute. To say that she was way beyond done with galas and society events for at least three lifetimes would be an understatement. But apparently these events were the perfect place to discuss all kinds of end of the world scenarios.

Cole stood next to her, overlooking the guests to find their mark. He looked handsome in his tuxedo and it didn't go unnoticed by the other guests. A wave of jealousy hit her hard. She didn't want to be like this, but she couldn't help herself.

"Let's have dance." Cole didn't even give her time to reply, just took her hand and led her towards the space the host had declared dance floor. A spark ignited under her skin wherever his hands touched her. 

The music was slow, classic and so were their steps. They were completely in-sync, entranced by the rhythm of the band.

"You're quite good at this by now." Cassie praised him.

Cole held her at her finger tips and slowly turned her around. "We've been at enough functions like this for me to learn. And you're a good teacher." He pulled her close to him.

"To be honest, I never would have thought you to be a fan of dancing when I met you."

"I don't like dancing that much." Cole admitted. "But I love dancing with you."

She didn't want to lose sight of the mission, but she also didn't want to let go of his body. Cassie wanted this moment to belong to them and nobody else. She wanted it to be true.

"I'm sorry." Cole said out of the blue.

"What for?" Cassie asked puzzled.

"I remember. The kinda proposal in the hospital, I mean. I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable."

"No. You didn't. Make me uncomfortable. I ---"

"Cassie ---"

She silenced him with a kiss. She didn't want his apology, not when there was nothing to apologize for. He'd only said the truth and it was enough. She knew it was the morphine that had made him brave enough, but she didn't want him to take it back.

Cole deepened the kiss and steered them away from the dance floor, towards a darker corner. "I love your dress." His fingers skipped over the deep neckline of her coral ball gown. Warmth spread through her whole body.

"I love your tuxedo." Cassie said, because she knew exactly what they were saying to each other. "I don't want to lose this."

"You won't." 

"Good."

Cassie kissed him once more for good measure. "We have to get back."

"I know." Cole leaned down and whispered against her neck, "I'll give you a promise. The next time you're wearing this ring on your finger, this won't be an act."

 

 

* * *

 

 

_\+ vi._

 

It was a quiet affair.

On a warm day at the end of April in 2046, April 24th to be exact, they stopped the plague.

In the end it wasn't a big fight between good and evil, not this time. They just put the last puzzle piece into place and suddenly the future lay in front of them, bright and peaceful and safe.

The big battles and sacrifices, all of that had already happened. This was their final victory, soft and forever.

And the aftermath was even more quiet.

A loud noise from the kitchen caught her attention and Cassie's eyes snapped open.

There were no dangers to her life anymore, yet she couldn't shake the habits she had built up the last few years. Cassie rolled onto her stomach and slowly closed her eyes again.

Sleep almost got the better of her, but then warm hands were running down her back. The smell of coffee wafted towards her from the bed side table.

Cassie cracked one eye open and let herself bathe in the sight of Cole's face, his body only clad in boxer shorts, illuminated by the instreaming light.

"Good morning."

 _"You fought so hard to save the future, you should get a chance to live in it, shouldn't you?"_ Jones had said, her hands gentle but steady, while she'd injected her a special version of the serum.

Cassie had asked for it - not being sent back to her time.

She wanted to stay.

She wanted to be with Cole.

Sending him back to the past with her was out of question; the chances of a paradox being to high. But she could stay, out of her own free will.

And that's what she had chosen.

A life with him.

"Morning." She yawned and stretched her arms above her head. Cole's gaze darkened as he followed the line of her naked body under the thin, white covers.

Cassie knew exactly how to get his attention.

Cole extended one hand towards her throat and pulled up the thin gold chain wrapped around her neck, literally her only piece of clothing.

"Remember what I said the last time you wore this?"

_The next time ---_

"Vividly."

In a matter of seconds Cole was on his knees beside the bed, putting his other hand against her warm cheeks. "What do you think about the next time being now?"

"Yes." She whispered and kissed him with all she had inside her.

It was a quiet affair.

They invited Ramse and Sam, of course. Also Jones and her daughter Hannah; a smart young woman the same age as them, who didn't know everything about what her mother had done for her, but enough.

Even Deacon, because she said so, and Cole begrudgingly agreed. He was a different kind of man in this world anyway, though he remembered too, like all of them did.

When they said their vows and tears rolled down both their cheeks, Cassie couldn't help but think back to the night they first met, and the irony of it all. She could see the reflection of her thoughts in Cole's eyes.

Cassandra, the prophet, got her happy end at last.

Cole slipped the golden ring onto her ring finger - the fake ring that had belonged to her for so long now, in so many different times - but with a newly added engraving.

_See you soon_

Cassie wouldn't have to take it off ever again.

**Author's Note:**

> please let me know what you think about this! you can also find me @ mightyjemma.tumblr.com :)


End file.
